Impact on performance

As you see, a modern CPU doesn't look like your daddy's old-fashioned von Neuman CPU at all. It's a very complex computer system on its own, banned on a very small chip, desperately trying out all possible tricks to squeeze out a little bit more performance from your program.

On the other hand, modern CPUs are trying to appear simple to the programmer, unfortunately leaking the implementation specifics all of the time along the way. So, what changed since the days of classic performance advice we summed up in the preceding sections?

Fortunately, not much. The basic techniques and guidelines still apply, but some additional advice must be heeded. Let's discuss these new points.